Cabin Fever crafting- snow dyeing fabrics

Heat Miser and Freeze Miser battled it out in Southtown this week giving Birmingham and much of the South a snow and ice event. The Boys, as Mother Nature calls them, forgot to inform those in charge of the weather forecasting in the Birmingham area. Those boys always did have a tendency to pull pranks. (Image on the left is the snow just getting started)

So, with two to three inches of snow blanketing the area, and being very, very fortunate not to have spent the night in the car in sub-freezing temps as so many did in Birmingham, I decided this was my rare chance to snow dye fabrics, instead of my usual ice dyeing- with ice from the freezer.

The day started out with an understanding of a dusting in central Alabama, so we all proceeded to work and school as usual. And when the snow started, it was pretty and the assumed dusting was underway. Then we were a city of hills disabled by tiny snow pellets that regular tires cannot grip. I just made it into the melee before the majority of the battlers got in the fight to get home- or to get to children. Two miles and an hour and a half was getting of light.

Image on the right was taken from my car after sitting in "traffic", which really means cars on a major interstate going 1-2 mph for about an hour. Note that I had three bars of gas and three bars of energy in the batteries, I drive a prius. That school bus had been blocking the lanes and attempting to get up the hill for 20-30 minutes. I didn't know at the time that there was school kids on it headed home from a field trip until I posted the pic on facebook and a mom of one of the kids on board commented. However, my 3-4 miles in just over an hour was fast compared to most people.

Once I got home and calmed down from a most harrowing experience, I looked at all the snow and the art show looming in two weeks. Then, I got to work! Soaking the silk and rayon in the soda ash liquid arranging it into the dye boxes and heading out to the back yard with a big spoon to scoop up snow.

box of fabric covered in snow                                  sprinkling the dye                              boxes read for time to do its work.

first image shows too much white fabric, at least for me. So, image two, I added tiny ice cubes to add more water and draw more dye into the fabric. Third image shows the completed dye process with no white fabric.

Snow + fiber reactive dyes + plant based fibers = love color!

I did four boxes of scarves for my art show next weekend, above are some of the silk scarves.

Now off to finish my knitting, I need to make a "zombie apocalypse" kit, as my friend calls it,  in preparation for the next weather event and in case I have to walk miles to get home, as so many has to this weekend. New water repellent cowl and mittens to cover my gloves. Hopefully, I will never need them.